Skautfold: Usurper Mixes Metroidvania with Lovecraftian Horror

The Skautfold series is pretty unique in that every iteration is linked to a different genre. While Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity offered a Souls-like experience, its sequel is a true metroidvania. Now Xbox users will be able to dive back in the series’ gothic and tortured universe with Skautfold: Usurper.

I had always dreamed of making games of my own, and had nurtured a big complicated project. I quickly realized that I would have to first create smaller more diverse experiences to learn more about game design and all aspects of creating games though. That’s how I began working on Skautfold, a series where the focus would be on different characters while using multiple genres.

Skautfold: Usurper takes place in an alternate history setting where most of the world is rules by two major empires, the British and the Dawn empire. The setting is haunted by the fact that Lovecraftian forces are real and have been actively altering historical events since around 1000 AD. At the start of the game a giant alien structure suddenly lands in the centre of London and Lovecraftian beasts begin pouring out. After a short clash, things calm down and this is where the story starts.

In order for Skautfold: Usurper to stand out gameplay wise, I created its very own guard system. It combines both a shield and stamina which gives a very different rhythm to combat and increases focus on risk and reward. It wants you to get in the enemy’s face and take risks and circumvent relying on heals as many games do. It regenerates passively so it’s all about learning a nice rhythm to being offensive and defensive.

Gamers should really that the time to understand how the guard system works and see how forgiving it actually is. It will save their lives many a time and let them have a lot more fun more quickly. That being said, the atmosphere and creature design are also worth noting as they can be surprising at times.

Players shouldn’t worry about not having played Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity before jumping into Usurper. While several characters from the first game appear in the game, it tells its own story. Usurper‘s plot contains several important setups and hints at things to come not just for the rest of Skautfold, but its sequel series Granser as well. Besides the story and hinted details, users will find some of those hints by just exploring the map thoroughly.

Before I let you all go, I wanted to thank you all very, very much for your support. I am very happy to see people enjoy my weird games and hope they will enjoy this one too as there was a lot of love poured into it. See you in London!

Ported to consoles by Red Art Studios, Skautfold: Usurper is available now on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.

Skautfold: Usurper

Red Art Games

☆☆☆☆☆
4

★★★★★

Usurper is a Metroidvania Action-RPG. With Eldritch horrors having been unleashed by the outer-worldly Citadel, your job is to rid London of its terrors and defeat the Navigator! Use the new “”””Guard”””” system that rewards skillful play and accuracy to uncover the massive structure and defeat the nightmares lurking within.

This sequel to Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity does not require knowledge of the previous game. Recently re-crowned Empress Eleanor has assembled the royal forces and her four most loyal Knights to enter the Citadel in hopes of learning more, and hopefully finding a way to rid London of its terrors. Meanwhile, Waltham, leader of the Weimar, uses his own forces to ascend the Citadel and challenge its leader, the Navigator, for his own… purposes…

Features:

– A compelling story built around the unlikely alliance between a no-nonsense knight and the shadowy being that resurrected him;

– An original battle system built around “”Guard””, a skill that allows the player to charge through attacks and take risks, rewarding accurate timing and risk assessment;

– A massive and versatile interconnected world with countless shortcuts and a variety of diverse areas, from human towns to alien landscapes, grand libraries, ethereal gardens, an Eldritch engine, and a crashed spaceship;

– 8 different stats to spec into (along with stat reallocation) and over 90 different weapons and spells to create countless varieties of character builds;

– Special game modes such as no-guard, 1 HP, permanent-death, and built-in speedrunning.